RingCentral Review (2024): Is It Right For Your Business?

RingCentral is an manufacture person successful the concern communications space. You tin beryllium connected its crystal-clear voice, high-quality audio, and exceptional lawsuit enactment successful a almighty level that’s packed with precocious features.

The biggest drawbacks? The terms tag, rigid contracts, and hard implementation, particularly for smaller businesses.

RingCentral’s pricing

RingCentral offers a scope of products and services for concern communication. It’s known for VoIP telephone systems and interaction halfway solutions.

VoIP concern telephone system: Starts astatine $20 per idiosyncratic per month

RingEX is RingCentral’s flagship product, giving increasing businesses each the tools they request to pass with customers and each other.

RingCentral offers 3 RingEX plans to take from. Image: RingCentral

There are 3 RingEX plans:

• Core: Starting astatine $20 per idiosyncratic per month: For smaller teams that request a unified connection suite.
• Advanced: Starting astatine $25 per idiosyncratic per month: For automatic telephone recording, unlimited net fax, and Salesforce integration.
• Ultra: Starting astatine $35 per idiosyncratic per month: For unlimited storage, toll-free minutes, and much almighty reporting.

There is simply a 14-day escaped proceedings for up to 20 telephone lines truthful you tin trial retired however RingCentral works for your squad earlier you buy. If you person much than 100 users, you’re eligible for a measurement discount connected immoderate plan.

RingCentral besides has a scope of add-ons for items similar vanity numbers ($30 set-up fee), planetary numbers (starting astatine $5.99 each per month), propulsion to speech ($5 per idiosyncratic per month), and other section oregon toll-free numbers ($4.99 per month).

The newest add-on is RingSense AI for RingEX. It offers AI notetaking, translations, substance generation, summaries, and speech insights.

RingSense AI is presently successful aboriginal entree and you tin articulation the waitlist to beryllium notified erstwhile it’s disposable to try.

Contact center: Starts astatine $65 per cause per month

If your needs necessitate much precocious features, you tin upgrade to RingCentral’s telephone and interaction halfway solution. There are 2 options, 1 for smaller telephone centers and 1 for endeavor contact centers.

These plans see almighty automations, telephone routing capabilities, outbound dialers, workforce management, prime monitoring, and cause engagement tools.

The cheapest enactment starts astatine $65 per cause per month. The endeavor program requires a customized quote.

Other RingCentral products

RingCentral is ever innovating and adding caller concern communications tools to its suite of products. Here’s a speedy look astatine at pricing for each of them:

• Video meetings: Starting astatine $15 per idiosyncratic per period (or escaped for basal use)
• Webinars: Starting astatine $54 per organizer per month
• Rooms: Starting astatine $49 per country per month
• Events: Starting astatine $750 per licence per year
• Sales intelligence: Starting astatine $60 per idiosyncratic per month

RingCentral’s cardinal features

RingCentral’s concern telephone strategy comes with a premix of the basal features you’d expect, positive plentifulness of precocious features you won’t find from similarly-priced tools connected the market.

Unlimited calling successful the US and Canada

Every RingCentral telephone program comes with unlimited calling successful the US and Canada, which is perfect for immoderate concern operating successful either location. It includes some inbound and outbound dialing capabilities, positive complimentary toll-free minutes based connected your plan.

You’ll besides get ocular voicemail, caller ID, unlimited audio conferencing, and unlimited video conferencing — each of which travel with high-definition dependable and AI-powered sound cancellation to drown retired inheritance sounds.

Take your concern telephone strategy to the adjacent level with RingCentral. Image: RingCentral

The champion portion astir this telephone strategy is that you don’t request immoderate hardware to usage it. Just download the RingCentral app connected your machine oregon smartphone, and you tin marque and person calls from anywhere.

You’ll get a VoIP telephone fig oregon toll-free fig included with your plan. But if you request more, it’s casual to adhd connected other lines oregon users from your admin dashboard.

Multi-level IVR

IVR (interactive dependable response) is considered an precocious telephone strategy feature, and usually lone offered arsenic a paid add-on oregon with higher-priced plans. But that’s not the lawsuit with RingCentral–it’s included connected each plan.

This diagnostic gives inbound callers the quality to power wherever they’re routed—ensuring they’re rapidly connected to the close section oregon cause the archetypal time.

Enhance your interaction halfway with IVR from RingCentral. Image: RingCentral

RingCentral’s IVR whitethorn besides destruct the request for a caller to talk to an cause altogether. It tin supply basal accusation astir your institution hours, billing, relationship balances, and much via dependable recordings.

All callers person to bash is prime the fig connected their keypad that corresponds with the paper options they’re looking for. Alternatively, they tin usage dependable commands, and IVR takes attraction of the rest.

Call and video recording

Every RingCentral telephone strategy comes with on-demand call recording. The diagnostic is turned disconnected by default, but it’s incredibly casual to enable. Once turned on, agents tin simply click a fastener erstwhile they’re acceptable to commencement oregon halt signaling a call.

If you upgrade to the Advanced oregon Ultra plan, you’ll payment from automatic telephone recordings arsenic well. This is simply a bully perk if you privation to grounds each call.

See however telephone signaling works with RingCentral’s demo. Image: RingCentral

Video gathering hosts and participants with admin capabilities volition besides beryllium capable to grounds meetings, with 1 twelvemonth of recordings stored successful the cloud. This is peculiarly convenient if a stakeholder is incapable to be a meeting, you privation to notation backmost to a treatment later, oregon repurpose your meetings for training.

Team messaging and collaboration

In summation to being an fantabulous telephone system, each RingCentral plans travel with squad collaboration tools.

This includes squad chat, record sharing, unlimited audio conferencing, whiteboards with annotations, collaborative note-taking, and breakout rooms.

You tin big video meetings with up to 100 participants connected the Core and Advanced plans, and this jumps to 200 astatine the Ultra tier.

Caption: Collaborate with your squad and get your enactment done seamlessly with RingCentral. Image: RingCentral

Having each of these features successful the aforesaid spot arsenic your telephone strategy simplifies things for your team. They won’t person to bounce backmost and distant betwixt aggregate platforms, and it’s casual to rapidly ping a teammate portion you’re connected a telephone with a customer.

The lone happening you mightiness miss connected the entry-level program is fax capabilities. However, you’ll get unlimited faxing with RingCentral’s 2 higher tiers.

AI gathering insights and unrecorded transcriptions

This is different precocious diagnostic that’s typically not an enactment connected different telephone systems until you scope a higher tier. But RingCentral offers it with each plan–even the cheapest one.

Powered by AI, RingCentral tin automatically make item reels from video calls. These travel with searchable summaries arsenic well, truthful you tin rapidly leap to a cardinal constituent without having to scroll done oregon ticker an full video. It tin besides make keyword-based clips and taxable lists, which are large for post-call organization.

On apical of that, it tin automatically transcribe what’s being said successful existent time. It’s similar speechmaking captions portion you’re watching a movie.

This is perfect for accessibility purposes, but it’s besides convenient successful situations wherever you can’t person your measurement connected oregon request assistance breaking down connection barriers.

The full unrecorded transcript tin beryllium downloaded erstwhile the telephone ends.

RingCentral pros

• Advanced features crossed the board.
• All-in-one communications suite.
• Works seamlessly crossed devices.
• Great for remote, in-person, and hybrid environments.
• 99.999% uptime SLA.
• End-to-end encryption.
• 24/7 telephone and unrecorded chat support.
• Professional implementation support.
• Attentive and accelerated lawsuit service.
• Active assemblage forum and cognition base.

RingCentral cons

• Complex setup and implementation.
• Limited toll-free minutes compared to others.
• No faxing connected the cheapest plan.
• Rigid, semipermanent contracts.

Alternatives to RingCentral

Although RingCentral has a ton of almighty features and astir unlimited scalability, it’s not the cleanable prime for everyone. See however it compares to its closest competitors.

RingCentral NextivaOoma8x8Dialpad

Starting price	$20 per idiosyncratic per month	$28.95 per idiosyncratic per month	$19.95 per idiosyncratic per month	Custom quote	$15 per idiosyncratic per month
Free trial	14 days	Demo only	None	None	14 days
Setup	Complicated	Easy	Very easy	Average	Easy
Call routing	Advanced	Average	Basic	Average	Advanced
Call recording	All plans	Top program only	Top 2 tiers	Call halfway plans only	All plans
AI features	Advanced	Average	Basic	Basic	Advanced
Video meetings	All plans	All plans	Top 2 tiers	All plans	All plans
Texting	All plans	Top 2 tiers	Top 2 tiers	All plans	All plans
Team chat	All plans	All plans	Top 2 tiers	All plans	All plans
Faxing	Top 2 tiers	All plans	All plans	All plans	+ $10 per month
Integrations	300+	20+	12	65+	70+

Nextiva

Nextiva is simply a amended prime if you don’t request the precocious features RingCentral offers. It besides comes with unlimited faxing connected each plan. Overall, Nextiva is easier to acceptable up, has superior lawsuit service, and has a smoother learning curve.

For much details, work my reappraisal of RingCentral vs Nextiva.

Ooma

RingCentral works good for immoderate benignant of enactment environment, but Ooma specifically targets in-person bureau spaces. Its pre-configured devices marque it casual to outfit the full office, adjacent if you don’t person dedicated IT resources connected staff.

For much details, work the TechRepublic reappraisal of RingCentral vs Ooma.

8×8

8×8 makes it casual and cost-effective for planetary teams to negociate a precocious measurement of planetary calls. RingCentral offers solutions successful assorted countries but doesn’t person unlimited planetary calling options.

Dialpad

Dialpad is continuously adding cutting borderline AI capabilities to its telephone strategy and interaction halfway solutions. RingCentral is doing the same, but hasn’t rather caught up. Dialpad’s AI-powered scorecards, real-time cause assist, predictive CSAT scores, and adherence monitoring are immoderate of the astir almighty AI applications connected the market.

For much details, work the TechRepublic reappraisal of RingCentral vs Dialpad.

Methodology

When reviewing concern telephone systems and telephone halfway solutions, I look intimately astatine 7 cardinal factors.

Standard and precocious features

Beyond calling capabilities, I look for video conferencing, voicemail, concern substance messaging, virtual receptionists, automatic telephone forwarding, instrumentality flipping, telephone routing, collaboration tools, and faxing on with beardown desktop and mobile apps.

Customer support

My lawsuit work people considers however the supplier tin beryllium reached, however adjuvant they are, enactment hours, and immoderate affirmative reviews related to lawsuit support.

Third-party integrations

I measure however galore tools that businesses often usage seamlessly sync with the platform, specified arsenic CRM, ERP, SMS, fax, unreality storage, and more.

Security and privacy

The platform’s redundancy architecture, encryption, precocious relationship management, aggregate servers successful antithetic locations, information halfway audits, SSO, and MFA are each considered.

Uptime percentage

I look astatine immoderate unplanned outages oregon method infrastructure issues, and thing other that could interrupt the service, pb to delays, oregon origin downtime.

Demo oregon escaped trial

I find if bundle offers escaped trials oregon demos that fto businesses trial the work earlier committing to a contract.

Overall cost

All the assorted fees, plans, discounts, add-ons, monthly versus yearly pricing differences, installation costs, and idiosyncratic costs origin into this component.